Novartis: purchase of stake approved by Roche

(CercleFinance.com) - On Friday Roche shareholders approved the only obstacle standing in the way of the purchase of Novartis' stake in the Swiss biopharmaceutical group.


Roche had announced earlier this month that it had agreed with its counterpart to acquire the 53.3 million shares so far controlled by Novartis, in a deal worth about 19 billion Swiss francs (about 18 billion euros).

However, Roche also made the transaction conditional on the approval by its shareholders of a clause providing for a capital reduction through the cancellation of the shares repurchased.

The latter transaction was approved by 99.85% of Roche's shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting held today, enabling the purchase of Novartis shares to be completed in early December.

Roche shares are currently down about 0.5%, while Novartis shares are worse off - down almost 2%.


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